Stork Captured and Jailed in Egypt as Suspected Spy

After July's military coup and August's deadly protests, authorities in Egypt have been vigilant against any sort of foreign interference. That vigilance led to an unexpected detainment on Friday, when an Egyptian citizen captured a stork he suspected of being a spy.

Some 280 miles south of Cairo, in the Qena Governorate, a man noticed a bird near his home had an electronic device attached to its wing. Worried it might be some sort of spying device, the man took the bird, later identified as a stork, to his local police department. Officers there weren't sure what to make of the device either, and held the bird overnight until it could be inspected by veterinary specialists.

Those specialists arrived the next day and quickly determined the device was not for spying but instead a wildlife tracker installed by French scientists to study the habits of migrating birds.

Ayman Abdallah, the head of Qena's veterinary services, told the Associated Press that the device had stopped working after it crossed the French border, exonerating the bird of any spying charges. Even so, Mohammed Kamal, Qena's head of security, praised the bird's capturer as a patriot.

As of Sunday morning, the bird was still in custody as police await permission from prosecutors to release it to the wild.